Complaints, Compliments and Comments
We're committed to providing quality housing services and to do this we need to know what’s working well and also what we need to do to improve.
Our dedicated Customer Experience Team administer all complaints, compliments and comments and Councillor and MP enquiries. The team also follow up on survey responses.
What is a complaint
A complaint is:
An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.
A complaint is not:
- An initial request for service - This is a request from a customer to us requiring action to be taken to put something right. (Service requests can become complaints if we fail to deal with the initial request appropriately.)
- A service that Platform do not provide
- Customer survey feedback
- An information request
- Chasing up of defects within the first twelve months for new build properties, complaint investigations would only be undertaken to look at the way the requests had been handled
- Request for clarification of a situation and/ or policy or procedures
- Any issue that is subject to legal proceedings
- Insurance claims or issues that will be subject to an insurance claim
- Complaints where the issues have not previously been brought to our attention and are more than 12 months old
- Previous complaints that have already been investigated and determined.
Complaint, Compliment or Comment Form
What happens when we receive your complaint.
Formal Complaint Investigation
Investigation by an Officer that has not previously been involved in the case.
- All Formal Complaints will be acknowledged by the Customer Experience Team within five working days following receipt of the complaints.
- All complaint investigations will involve us making contact with you, either by telephone, e-mail, or in person.
- We aim to have completed our investigations into your complaint within 10 working days. However, we want to ensure that your complaint is thoroughly investigated and understand that some complaints are more complex and may need more time to investigate.
- If we need more time, we will make sure this is agreed with you and that we will keep in regular contact.
Final Review – Review by Senior Manager
If you want your complaint to be escalated to Final Review then please come back to us within 15 working days to let us know what part of your complaint remains unresolved.
Where other matters are introduced, these will be dealt with separately and the current complaint will be deemed as resolved.
On receipt of all Final Review requests, the Customer Experience Team will send you an acknowledgement within five working days following receipt to confirm:
- The name of the person who is dealing with the complaint (Senior Investigating Officer)
- The process that will be followed
- The timescales for investigation
On acceptance of a Final Review request, a Senior Manager or a member of the Customer Experience Management Team will review the complaint and will make personal contact with you. They will aim to respond in writing within 20 working days. Some complaints are more complex and may need more time, we will make sure that we discuss this with you and keep in regular contact.
If you feel that your complaint remains unresolved
Following completion of our internal procedure you can refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service by calling 0300 111 3000 or by email info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
How to contact the Housing Ombudsman Service
The best way to get complaints resolved is to speak to us directly. We have a procedure in place to ensure that your complaint is dealt with effectively.
However you are able to contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at any point for independent help and advice.
If you have exhausted our Complaint Procedure and you remain dissatisfied, you are able to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service.
The details for the Housing Ombudsman Service are as follows:
You can call the Housing Ombudsman Service on: 0300 1113000
You can email the Housing Ombudsman Service: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
You can find out more at the Housing Ombudsman Website here.
Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
In September 2020 the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) introduced a new Complaint Handling Code. The purpose of the Code was to enable us and other landlords to resolve complaints raised by customers quickly and to use the learning from complaints to drive service improvements.
The Complaint Handling Code was made statutory on 1 April 2024 meaning that we are obliged by law to follow its requirements.
What is the Complaint Handling Code?
Key areas of the Code include:
- universal definition of a complaint
- providing easy access to the complaints procedure and ensuring customers are aware of it, including their right to access the Housing Ombudsman Service
- the structure of the complaint's procedure - only 2 stages necessary and clear times set out for responses
- ensuring fairness in complaint handling with a customer-focused process
- taking action to put things right and appropriate remedies
- creating a positive complaint handling culture through continuous learning and improvement
- demonstrating learning in annual reports
- annual self-assessment against the Code
Watch this helpful video that looks at what the Complaint Handling Code is.
Annual Submissions
We have completed an annual self-assessment against the code since it was introduced in 2020. We now need to submit this to the Housing Ombudsman Service at the end of September each year. Alongside our self-assessment against the code we also need to complete an Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report, both documents can be found below:
Self Assessment September 2025
Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report 2024 – 2025
Governing Body Response - Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report 2024/25
At Platform, we are committed to delivering a customer-first housing experience for a better future. Our vision is to create homes everyone is proud of and places where people thrive.
As an organisation we know that we don’t always get things right first time which is why we see customer complaints as such an important tool to help us understand where things are not working and an opportunity for us to put those things right.
We have a dedicated Customer Experience Team who have overall responsibility for the complaint handling process. Their role is to ensure that all complaints are handled professionally and in a timely manner. One of their roles is to identify learning opportunities arising from complaints.
Complaints are discussed widely with colleagues and teams across the business from Board and Executive Level through to operational delivery teams and our key delivery contractors.
We see the Board Member responsible for complaints role as really important; ensuring there is a clear understanding and ownership at the most senior level of the organisation.
As part of the Board Member responsible for complaints role we feel it’s important to be using technology to get ahead of the curve. This year we have encouraged teams to look at data and what it’s telling us so we can be more proactive and use it to embed learning. This will be further enhanced over the next twelve months.
The Board Member Responsible for Complaints, along with the wider Group Board, are pleased to share with you our second complaints performance and service improvement report for the 24/25 financial year in which we outline the actions we have taken as a result of feedback from our customers. We recognise that we still have work to do particularly around improving how we communicate with residents and also our repairs service, but we believe that being honest and transparent about our performance helps us to remain focused on these areas.
Download our Customer Feedback Leaflet (Complaints Procedure) here.
Here is our Complaints Comments and Compliments Policy.